America Online 2010 Annual Report Download - page 7

Table of Contents
Our Strategic Initiatives
Consistent with our strategic shift to a business focused primarily on generating advertising revenues, we are in the midst of executing a multi-year
strategic plan to reinvigorate growth in our revenues and profits by taking advantage of the continuing migration of advertising, commerce and information to
the Internet. Our strategy is to focus our resources on AOL's core competitive strengths in web and local content production, consumer applications,
advertising and paid services while expanding the distribution of our content, product and service offerings on multiple platforms and digital devices,
including on portable wireless devices such as smartphones and tablets (e.g., iPhone, iPad, Android-based devices and Blackberry). We aim to reinvigorate
AOL's culture and brand by prioritizing the consumer experience, making greater use of data-driven insights and encouraging innovation, including through
initiatives in AOL Ventures. We are also actively supplementing our business strategy through targeted acquisitions and dispositions. Particular areas of
strategic emphasis include:
• Enhancing Our Content Brands. We are enhancing our brands by providing relevant and engaging online consumer content by focusing on the
creation and distribution of original content produced by us and through strategic partnerships as well as the distribution of content produced by
third parties.
• Pursuing Local Internet Opportunities. We believe that there are significant opportunities for growth in the area of local content, platforms and
services, by providing comprehensive content covering all geographic areas from local neighborhoods to major metropolitan areas. By enhancing
these local internet offerings we seek to provide consumers with a comprehensive local experience.
• Providing Innovative Consumer Applications. We seek to increase the reach of and engagement on our established consumer applications
(including communications offerings such as our e-mail products and instant messaging applications) on multiple platforms and digital devices.
• Increasing Advertising Sales on Our Own Properties and Growing the Third Party Network. We seek to deepen our relationships with existing
advertisers and attract new advertisers by providing them with effective and efficient means of reaching our consumers. In addition, we seek to
grow the number of publishers and advertisers utilizing our third-party advertising network by providing an open, transparent and easy-to-use
advertising system that offers unique and valuable insights to our publishers and advertisers. As a part of our sales initiatives, we include
incentive programs as needed to drive new sales initiatives and products deemed necessary for the growth of our business.
• Becoming a Consumer-Friendly Retailer of Subscription Products and Services. We seek to develop, test and market new subscription products
that are owned by us and by third parties. To facilitate this goal, we launched the initial phase of a single consumer-facing platform in 2010 that
allows us to manage and distribute these additional products. In 2011, we plan on launching the next phase of this single, consumer-facing
platform as a means of further improving the management, marketing and distribution of these products.
Business Overview
Our business operations are focused on the following:
• AOL Properties. We seek to be a leading online publisher of relevant and engaging online content and provider of engaging consumer products
and services, by utilizing open and highly scalable publishing platforms and content management systems. In addition, we have extended and
continue to extend the reach of our offerings to a consumer audience on multiple platforms and digital devices. AOL Properties include our
owned and operated content, products and services in the Content, Local, Paid Services and Consumer Applications strategy areas in addition to
our AOL Ventures offerings. AOL Properties also include co-branded websites owned by third parties for which certain criteria have been
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